Triumph and Defeat by Terrence J. Winschel

Attempts to stop the Union advance at Champion Hill and Big Black River Bridge were unsuccessful. Lincoln called Vicksburg 'the key to the war.' Background Military situation Īfter crossing the Mississippi River south of Vicksburg at Bruinsburg and driving northeast, Grant won battles at Port Gibson and Raymond and captured Jackson, the Mississippi state capital, on May 14, 1863, forcing Pemberton to withdraw westward. It cut off the Trans-Mississippi Department (containing the states of Arkansas, Texas and part of Louisiana) from the rest of the Confederate States, effectively splitting the Confederacy in two for the rest of the war. George Meade the previous day, the turning point of the war. The Confederate surrender on July 4, 1863, is sometimes considered, when combined with Gen. Banks on July 9, yielded command of the Mississippi River to the Union forces, who would hold it for the rest of the conflict. This action, combined with the surrender of the down-river Port Hudson to Maj. The successful ending of the Vicksburg campaign significantly degraded the ability of the Confederacy to maintain its war effort. After holding out for more than forty days, with their supplies nearly gone, the garrison surrendered on July 4. When two major assaults against the Confederate fortifications, on May 19 and 22, were repulsed with heavy casualties, Grant decided to besiege the city beginning on May 25. Vicksburg was the last major Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River therefore, capturing it completed the second part of the Northern strategy, the Anaconda Plan. Pemberton, into the defensive lines surrounding the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mississippi River and drove the Confederate Army of Mississippi, led by Lt. The siege of Vicksburg (May 18 – July 4, 1863) was the final major military action in the Vicksburg campaign of the American Civil War.

Triumph and Defeat by Terrence J. Winschel